Hinkley: Erin Brockovich, residents talk about the plume

"I walked away assuming everything was OK, and it wasn't. I feel duped, and ashamed."

Nearly two decades after Environmental Advocate Erin Brockovich aided Hinkley in a $333 million landmark settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co., and a feel-good, award-winning "Erin Brockovich" 2000 movie put the town's plight into the spotlight, the future of the small Mojave Desert town is at stake as a toxic chromium-6 plume continues to plague Hinkley. Residents are leaving, and its only school closed. Those who remain are left weary in an abandoned town.

Hear some of what Brockovich and others have to say about the town of Hinkley 17 years after a landmark settlement. Then come to our website Friday to read more about Hinkley, its residents and the plume that never went away.